Academy economist: Political appointments in administration, devastating for economy

The Government cannot reboot the economy because the public administration is rife with political appointments, which are not transparent, and have no performance criteria set for them, and the public money is being wasted on things that do not generate any value in the economy, analysts say.

University professor Lucian Liviu Albu, head of the Forecast Institute of the Romanian Academy, one of the best-known economics experts says: “Political appointments have devastating effects in the economy. The bureaucratic apparatus is already stiff as it is, there are only a few specialists left; add more people who have no idea what their job is about and it’s over. An example would be the departments for getting European funds, whose managers were appointed on political criteria. They cannot even begin to imagine what negative effects political appointments have on fragile economies.”

Albu became a correspondent member of the Academy in 2009 and is one of the youngest economics specialists to achieve such a position. Other economists who are also Academy members are NBR Governor Mugur Isarescu, Daniel Daianu, Emanoil Dobrescu, Tudorel Postolache, Gheorghe Zaman and Iulian Vacarel.

Albu says the government does not seek advice from economics experts.

“Nobody came to us for anything. There was a Consultative Board once, now there is nothing. This government behaves like a know-it-all. There are contradictory measures. Nobody from the Government came to ask us about anything, request research, nothing. We publish, we go out, we have papers published, but the government ignores us,” the professor said.